Mystery reborn as Glitch returns to screens

Camera IconEmma Booth returns in season two of Australian paranormal drama series Glitch.

When filming wrapped on the first season of the ABC’s paranormal drama Glitch, actress Emma Booth had a barrage of questions she hoped would be answered in season two.

Airing in 2015, the six-part series centred on a group of people who mysteriously rose from the dead in the town of Yoorana and, for reasons unexplained, cannot physically move beyond the town’s boundaries or else wind up dead, again.

It wasn’t until Netflix added Glitch to its TV content last year that the series, dubbed by some US critics as “the next Stranger Things”, went on to amass a cult international following and subsequently set the wheels in motion for season two.

“We weren’t sure if it was going to happen,” Booth recalls.

“Everyone was going a little bit crazy but when it eventually got picked up by Netflix I think it had that second instalment of life breathed into it and everyone went crazy for it. So they were all like ‘Quick, let’s make a second one’.”

Co-produced by Matchbox Pictures, Netflix and the ABC, Booth returns as Kate, who is none the wiser since mysteriously rising from the dead only to find herself confined to live within Yoorana’s borders.

While Booth has notched up a string of notable roles since filming the first season, she relished the chance to revisit her character’s strange predicament.

“The minute I put the costume on, boots and all, and having all (the cast) around, it was like I never left,” she recalls.

Camera IconBooth with Glitch co-star and fellow West Australian Sean Keenan.

“It kind of felt like Kate made the decision to move on and there’s a really beautiful strength in her that came out. She is such a wonderful character to play, she’s very complex and layered, which always keeps me very interested in my job in general.

“I have to play characters that I really get to go deep with, or so I hope. That’s what I really enjoy, exploring the inner psyche and she’s a pretty amazing character so it was awesome to get back into playing her.”

Also returning is Patrick Brammall as Kate’s ex-husband James, who is still digging for answers as to why his dead wife has returned; fellow WA actor Sean Keenan as back-from-the-dead Charlie; and Genevieve O’Reilly as Dr Elisha, who reveals a shocking new twist in the season two opener. WAAPA graduate Luke Arnold and Rob Collins also join the cast this season as enigmatic characters with an unknown agenda.

“There’s definitely a different feel this season,” Booth says.

“It gets very interesting. They certainly brought out the questions for everyone, and it’s like, ‘How are they going to explain this?’ It gets so much weirder, you have no idea what’s coming. But pretty much all the questions get answered, and it gets a lot weirder, that’s all I’m going to say.”

Booth says the complex mysteries woven throughout the series are a credit to writer Louise Fox, who co-created Glitch with award- winning writer/director Tony Ayres (The Slap, Nowhere Boys).

“Lou is a brilliant writer. For something as insane and unbelievable as six people crawling out of their graves, she’s just managed to keep it really special and really grounded in realism. She’s done a brilliant job at explaining,” she says.

“I think that it’s always interesting when you first read the script, I mean I’m just as curious as any other person out there, and the amount of times I’ve gone ‘Are you kidding me?’ It keeps it interesting.”

Another TV project that has Booth excited is her upcoming role in the hit US fairytale drama Once Upon A Time.

Booth is set to portray “a witch” in the show’s upcoming seventh season, which is shot in Vancouver and will air in the US in October.

“It’s another interesting character, and I love fairytales. I’m obsessed with them,” she says.